


Friends in Weird Places

by Zombie_ReiKitti



Series: Strange Friends [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe, Father-Son Relationship, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, crappy hotels, skyrim in the criminal minds verse, sneaking into the BAU, what if dark brotherhood existed in the criminal minds universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 18:44:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zombie_ReiKitti/pseuds/Zombie_ReiKitti
Summary: Jack Hotchner gets kidnapped by an unsub. Then he's rescued by a passerby (Dark Brotherhood Listener) and they begin their journey back to Virginia. Meanwhile, the unsub has taunted Aaron Hotchner with photos of dead children, and Aaron prays his son isn't one of them.(The AU where the Dark Brotherhood is an assassin guild in the Criminal Minds verse)





	Friends in Weird Places

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            It started out as any other day; wake up, shower, choose which client to see, get in, get the job done, get out again without the cops knowing you were ever there. But this particular job went a little wonky during the "get the job done" part. That wasn't to say it went poorly, however. I just wasn't expecting to find a kid staring at me while I was dropping the body down the laundry chute. The kid didn't say anything, either, just blinked at me. It was a bit unnerving, really.

            "Errr... Hello?" I mumbled.

            Still, the kid only blinked. Truly unnerving, this kid was.

            "Well... It'd be weird to just leave you here... though it'd be weird to take you, too. Gods, what to do?" I considered to myself quietly. "What do ya think, kid? Wanna come with me outta here?"

            Still, the kid only blinked. It was less unnerving this time, as weird as that was. It must've only been minutes since I had asked before the kid was nodding at me. That settled that. He stood on shaky legs and wobbled over to me. I motioned to my back to see if he wanted to a ride on my back, but he shook his head while grabbing my hand. That, also, settled that. I was just counting my blessings that he wasn't a screamer; that would've been irritating.

            Squeezing his hand just slightly, I stood, and led the way back out of the old hotel. My car was parked on the far side of the parking lot (as though someone had just parked there because all of the curbside parking was full). It was quiet on the walk there.

            "Do you wanna sit in the back or in the front?" I asked the kid while unlocking the car.

            Instead of answering me, he just stood by the front passenger side door, which was an answer in and of itself. Sighing to myself (I did not just let kids ride in the car with me, but I guessed there was a first time for everything), I opened the passenger side door and he slipped in. He was slipping on his seatbelt when I shut the door. This was going to be a weird drive, I could already tell as I opened the driver side door and got in.

            The car roared as I turned it on, and soon we were on our way before anyone woke up to see us leave.

 

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            We drew to a slow stop outside another old hotel. It was getting ridiculous how many 'bad men' chose old hotels to set up shop in. _Seriously, wasn't there a class out there saying to avoid old hotels?_ I thought, shuddering a bit in my seat.

            "Well, we're here. Remember what we talked about, kid?" I turned to face him.

            He nodded and fiddled with the seatbelt.

            "Okay, I'll just be a few minutes. If not- well, run to the nearest phone booth and call your parents," I told him while I got out of the car. I shut the door while he was still fiddling with the seatbelt. I supposed I was supposed to worry over whether the kid would stay in the car or not, but I wasn't all that worried. If he wanted to stay, he would. And if not, then the kid was off my back and I could continue doing my job without worrying about him. _Gods, this is fucked up... Wait... Are phone booths even still a thing? Uhhhh... Guess he'll run to the nearest neighbor then._ Thinking about what the neighbors must be like in this rundown neighborhood had me shuddering. _Best to get this over with quick, then._

            Walking through the old hotel just reminded me of how dusty these places were. _If you want stuff to grow in weird places, choose a hotel to kill in. This place is gross._ Stepping off the last stair, I heard muffled voices. _Voices? Don't tell me I'm 'bout to walk into a shit show!_

            As it turned out, both of my targets were deep in conversation and didn't see my first shot (that one tore through the older man's stomach). The second and third shot tore through the younger man's chest. They both collapsed within seconds of each other. Before the older man could reach for his own weapon, I shot him in the head. _Two down, and the world is a safer place already. Wonderful. Time to get back to the kid. I really hope he's still in the car._

            I didn't move these men after shooting them. My worry over the kid took precedence- just needed to know he was okay after being on his own for a bit (and hadn't panicked if this had gone on a bit longer than planned. My timing senses always got a bit wonky when doing a job so I didn't know for certain just how long I'd been in this dingy hotel). Plus not moving the bodies meant I didn't have to heave them around anywhere. Blood was a bitch to get out- especially when blood was coated with whatever gross stuff was around us. _Eww._

            Walking back to the car, there was a head bobbing up and down in the front passenger seat. Without a beat, a smile crept onto my face. _Thank gods, I wasn't gone too long!_ I stashed my gun into my pants ( _I know, terrible place for a gun, but it's not like I have a purse to put it into. Plus kid. Don't trust the kid not to snoop_ ). There was even a little skip in my step as I walked a bit faster.

            "Hey kiddo, was I gone too long?" I asked as I slipped into the driver seat.

            He shook his head and turned down the radio. _Firework_ by Katy Perry was just getting to the chorus.

            "Hey, no reason to turn it down. It's a good song!" I happily told him.

            He smiled at me and turned it back up.

            "Ready to head back home?" I asked him while pulling out of the parking lot.

            He nodded his head, looking the happiest I'd seen him all day. _Maybe having a kid around isn't all that bad._

 

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            We were seated on the little couch in the nice hotel room ( _much better than that dingy hotel_ ), enjoying our take out from the nearby Chinese restaurant while watching a reruns of old cartoons. I pulled out my phone and turned it on. It was getting low on battery, I'd need to plug it in soon.

            "Alright, kiddo, gotta give me a hint 'bout where we're headed," I said while pulling up a map on my phone. Sliding the phone over to the kid, I watched him for any signs of calling the cops. He tapped something into the search bar and then slid the phone back to me.

            "Huh. You sure you wanna go here?" I asked, making sure this wasn't a joke.

            He nodded his head, his face as stern as he could get it.

            "Well, alright. If you're sure?"

            He nodded again, face just as stern as before. _Still cute!_

            "Well, alright, since you're so sure," I muttered. Whoever taught this kid the address for the FBI was not my friend. But I'd get the kid there. It was only right. Plus the FBI could find the kid's parents without it being all creepy. Maybe whoever taught the kid the FBI's address wasn't too bad, since he-she-they-whoever just made my job of getting the kid home easier.

            "We'll head out in the morning, so best to get some sleep," I told him, throwing away the empty take-out boxes. "You can have the bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

            He looked like he was going to argue but he kept his silence. Sighing, I ruffled his hair and motioned for him to scoot. He moved onto the bed and got himself settled in under the covers.

            After what seemed like five minutes, I took out my phone charger from my bag and plugged it in. Then I plugged in my phone. _Ten percent and charging. Gods, what a night. I'll just tuck this in here and get some shut-eye,_ I thought to myself as I stashed my phone between my thigh and the arm of the couch. It probably wasn't the best place but I didn't want the kid to call the cops on us if I left the phone out in the open. Having the cops called on you for kidnapping a kid wasn't fun and was a major pain in the ass to get out of. I seriously didn't want to deal with that. Not that I wanted to deal with going to the FBI either, but at least, I could walk in and drop him off. That was my plan, after all. _Get in, get the job done, get out. Should be easy. Gods, I hope it's easy,_ was my last thought as I drifted off into sleep.

 

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            "You sure you wanna be here and do this?" I asked the little guy for the millionth time. I was pretty sure he was getting tired of hearing it, but I just had to make sure he knew what he was getting into. (Or rather, what he was getting _us_ into.)

            He nodded at me while giving me a childish glare. Well, that settled that. Child glares were nothing to sneeze at. Kid could probably out glare me on a good day, to be honest.

            "Do you wanna hold my hand while we do this or do you wanna be carried?" I asked him. We hadn't discussed this finer point yet. I didn't want to assume anything when he was this close to finding his parents.

            His lips thinned as he thought it over. Then he thrust his arms up at me. He did that a couple more times before my brain clued in that he wanted to be picked up. (I had close to no experience with kids, okay?)

            I hefted him up into my arms and got him settled on my hip (I'd seen mothers hold their kids like this so it seemed logical to carry him like this). His arms went around my neck and he buried his face in my shoulder. Shifting my weight just slightly, I opened the door leading into the lobby area of the FBI building. It wasn't as shiny as I thought it would be, but I found I didn't mind all that much- at least it was _clean_.

            Humming softly, I stood in line to get through the metal detector. (Yes, I had left my gun in the glove compartment of my car. I wasn't stupid.) It took awhile for our turn, but the guard was understanding and let the kid and I go through the metal detector together. I was pretty sure the kid had fallen asleep, but I wasn't going to shuffle him around and risk waking him just to take a peek at his face.

            "Awww! He's sooo cute!" The lady guard behind the metal detector cooed while shuffling through papers. "How old is he?"

            "Ummm..." Was my intelligent response.

            "Oh, he is just darling! Who are you here to see?" She prattled on.

            I panicked. Quickly thinking through all the fed names I had heard in the last week, I rushed out "Hotchner."

            "OH! He's out right now, but he should be back within the hour! Are you here to surprise him? I bet he'll be right surprised to see his family!" The lady guard prattled on without letting me get another word in. I nodded along as she told me which floor the BAU was on and how much longer I'd have to wait before Aaron Hotchner got back from wherever. She continued saying something as she pinned a "Visitor" badge to my shirt, and she was saying something else (it sounded like another coo) while I got into the elevator. I pushed the button to the floor she had mentioned I would need, and prayed the elevator doors would close faster.

            They finally began to close just as the lady guard (was she even a guard? I wasn't sure anymore) waved her goodbyes while calling out, "Bye-bye Mrs. Hotchner! Have a good night!"

            I stared at the now closed elevator doors. _What? Mrs. Hotchner? By the gods! What has my life come to?_ It took me a moment to realize that it was the logical assumption since I was carrying a child who may or may not be this Aaron Hotchner's and I was _carrying_ the kid (and letting the kid sleep on me). I groaned at the implications. The other people in the elevator with us sent me varying looks of sympathy, but gratefully, no one else said anything. (I prayed nothing weird would come from this. The mantra 'get in, get the job done, get out' was on repeat through my mind. I just needed to get in - check - and drop off the kid and then leave. I didn't need to do anything else, I kept telling myself.)

            I felt something wet soaking through my shirt and decided the kid needed some place to sleep besides on my shoulder. (Maybe kids were cute as long as they stayed _off_ my shoulders.) Finally, the elevator pinged the floor I needed, and as soon as those doors were open, I was out of the elevator.

            Which only brought me to my next problem: where was Hotchner's office? I stood still and just took in the floor I was at. There were glass doors in front of me and beyond looked like an area for cubicle desks. To the right was a wooden door leading somewhere else and an identical door was to the left. Sighing and deciding going forward was the best bet, I pushed open the glass doors. Which wasn't as bad as I had thought (no one suddenly turned to stare and no one was reaching for their gun, all in all, I considered it a win). Once inside, I noticed there were offices along the outside rim of the cubicle area. Deciding it was a better choice than asking for help, I turned to the left and started reading the different name plaques on the doors. It turned out it was the right decision as I came across one 'A. Hotchner' name on an ajar door.

            Pushing the door more open, I saw there was a small couch in the office. _Perfect!_ Smiling to myself, I gently lowered the kid to the couch. He snuggled into the cushions immediately. _Awwwww!_ I mentally cooed. He was sooo cute! Looking around the office, I found a discarded jacket and carefully put it over the kid so he wouldn't get cold as he slept. I stood back and just stared down at the kid. _So kids really are cute when they sleep, _I mentally cooed again. Turning to the desk, I grabbed a pen and wrote a quick message on a sticky-note. _If this kid ever needed help again, I'd be glad to help._

\---------------------------------------

**_You have friends in weird places. If you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask._ **

_(It was signed with a small sketch of an inked-in hand rather than a name.)_

\---------------------------------------

            I stole one more look at the kid, smiled, then turned and left.

            I waved to the guards from before and made excuses that I had to get to work before I was late. The guards bought my white lie, and they waved goodbye at me. Choosing to be a little extra daring, I waved back at them, then continued on my way back to my car.

            It wasn't until I was driving away from the FBI building that I noticed I already missed the kid. We didn't spend a lot of time together, but over the past week, he'd grown on me. Or maybe I was just getting old and sentimental. (It was probably the second choice. I didn't like kids and I certainly wasn't a mother or a mother-type.) Thinking over my choices, I decided that if the chance cropped up, I'd pop in and see how the kid was doing. _It probably wasn't the best idea when the feds were crawling around, so I'd have to wait a while before checking in with him again, but I was patient. I could wait._

 

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_Meanwhile:_

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            "Aaron? Aaron? Hotch!" Rossi called from across the room. "You okay? What's wrong?" He walked around the desk to linger just behind Aaron's shoulder.

            "Jack... he... he's got Jack!" Came Aaron's raspy reply while his hands were shaking. He half-turned to let Rossi see his cell phone.

            "What? Let me see." Rossi took Aaron's cell from him and stared down at the picture. It was of Jack, but he was being held against the UNSUB with a knife at his throat. "Shit. We'll get them, Aaron, we'll get him."

            Aaron nodded and soon they were rushing into the SUV and on their way to finding the UNSUB and Jack, hopefully they'd get there in time before Jack became the UNSUB's next victim. (Rossi was praying they'd get there in time to save Aaron's son, but this UNSUB liked taking things slow especially with children. Rossi hoped Aaron's son wasn't too scarred or too traumatized. That would crush Aaron- it would probably destroy Aaron if anything had happened to Jack.)

 

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            "On my mark: One... Two... Three! Let's go!" Aaron hissed to his team before anyone entered the old hotel where the UNSUB supposedly was hiding within. The first floor was soon found empty, and soon so was the second floor. The stairs leading up to the third floor were creakily, and the agents took care to walk slowly up them so as not to startle the UNSUB.

            When Aaron reached the third floor, he was stunned to see so many bodies mangled and left out to rot. So many of the bodies were small- smaller than any eight year old child should be. It only solidified his horror about what his son must have seen and went through. He and his team quickly cleared the third floor before heading up to the fourth floor. They soon wished this hotel only had three floors; more mangled bodies were strewn about and it was rank with the smell of death and decay.

            "Find anyone alive?" Aaron asked the agent behind him. He couldn't think of the man's name right then, not when he didn't know if Jack was alive or- No, he wouldn't think it- Jack _had_ to be alive. He _had to be._

            "No one yet. This is where the UNSUB's phone got tracked to be, but I haven't seen anyone matching his description yet. Not in any of the dead piles, anyway," Morgan answered, his face scrunched up at the smell.

            "We'll find him, Aaron, we'll find him," Rossi said from behind Aaron. He patted his back firmly then walked around the fourth floor trying to find any clues about Jack. Rossi hoped the kid was still alive, but things weren't looking too great at the moment.

            "There's a blood trail over here!" Reid called out from across the hall. He was near what appeared to be a small silver door in the wall.

            _A laundry chute?_ Aaron thought to himself as he wandered over. He nodded to Reid and ready his gun for any possibility.

            Reid quickly open the hatch to the laundry chute. When only darkness greeted him, he shone his flashlight down into its depths. "Uuugghh!" He muttered. Inside the chute was a body. Its adult head was by its adult feet at an odd angle. But it was the smell that alerted them to the fact that this was a dead body.

            "I think we found the UNSUB," Reid murmured, looking over at Aaron. Aaron had a grim look on his face as he took the flashlight from Reid and looked down the chute himself. Reeling back, he nodded at Reid, agreeing with his quiet statement.

            "If the UNSUB is here, where is Jack?" Aaron thought aloud. "Who shoved the UNSUB into this laundry chute? Did they take Jack? Why would they take Jack?"

            "Maybe Jack hid somewhere when whoever got to the UNSUB? Maybe Jack is still hiding?" Morgan suggested from where he stood in an open doorway.

            The team all looked at each other before calling out "Jack! Jack, where are you?" (Aaron was calling out "Jack, it's me! It's dad! It's safe to come out!"), but only silence met them on this floor. Morgan and Reid fled down to the third floor to call out for Jack while Aaron and Rossi went down to the second floor to look for Jack.

            After awhile the team met together on the first floor where they all looked for Jack. But it was to no avail. Jack either wasn't in the hotel or he was one of the dead. Aaron hoped Jack was still alive, but he knew the statistics of Jack still being alive after maybe being kidnapped was slim. Especially if he was kidnapped by the same person who took out the UNSUB by shoving the UNSUB down the laundry chute. (Aaron preferred thinking his son was still alive as compared to being dead. Aaron didn't think he'd be able to work, much less, think straight if his son had died.)

            Rossi barked out orders that they should all look through the dead bodies. "Just to make sure" he reasoned with them while the team left Aaron to his own thoughts as they began the long and very tedious job of looking for an eight year old boy amongst the piles of other dead eight year old bodies (some of the bodies were slightly older while others were slightly younger).

            It took awhile to go through all the bodies, but once they had, one thing was for certain: Jack Hotchner was nowhere to be found.

 

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            The fingerprints they had found on the dead UNSUB didn't match anyone in the database. It seemed they were back to square one as to who had taken out the UNSUB before the FBI could reach the hotel. Much less how they had gotten away from the hotel without anyone being any the wiser. There was no reported suspicious activity in the area. And no one remembered seeing anything out of the ordinary. It was a frustrating few days with little to no leads.

            The FBI team knew they were running out of time to search for Jack when their UNSUB turned up dead and their leads weren't going anywhere. It was looking more and more like this case was going to turn cold. And that was something everyone did not want. Especially not one Aaron Hotchner.

            He woke up to the phone ringing. He'd fallen asleep at the desk, again. "Hotchner," he spoke, answering the phone.

            "I'm sorry, boss man, I haven't found anything pertaining to any children going missing in your area. And there's no mention anywhere of a lost child being found," Came the tense reply.

            He squeezed his eyes shut. This was not what he wanted to hear. "Was there anything else?"

            A pause. Then, "I'm sorry. They're taking you off the case. They said to tell you that you're to return home as soon as possible. They don't have enough to keep you out there." There was sincere regret in those words. Aaron hated those words. If he could, he would stay and search for his son, but like Garcia had said, they had no more leads to follow here. The unknown set of fingerprints were all they had, and that had been a bust. He sighed into the phone.

            "I understand. We'll leave on the next flight available. Please keep looking. Thank you, Garcia," he said into the phone, getting up from his slouch over the desk. He hung up the phone as he walked around the desk to the door.

            "Time to leave," Aaron wearily called out. His team all looked up at him in surprise.

            "What about-?" Morgan started to ask. Aaron shook his head.

            "We're being recalled back. We can continue our search there," Aaron informed them all, feeling as though someone had slugged him in the gut. He hated not knowing what happened to his son, and he hated that he now had to leave without finding any answers.

            "We'll keep searching for your son here, too. It's the least we can do," the local town Sheriff promised. Aaron appreciated it.

            "Thank you," Aaron sincerely said, firmly gripping the Sheriff's hand in a quick handshake. "If you find anything, please, let me know."

            The Sheriff nodded, released Aaron's hand, and waved goodbye to the team.

 

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            He groaned while stretching his legs and arms out. Then he sat up. Looking around the room, he saw a desk in front of him with a chair behind it and a few bookshelves behind the desk. It looked nothing like the hotels they'd been staying at throughout the past week. With a yawn, he got to his feet and walked around the desk. Maybe he'd find some clue as to where he was. He didn't think his new friend would leave him alone somewhere, but he had only known her for a week. It was possible she'd dumped him the first chance she got.

            A photo on the desk caught his attention. It was of him! The photo next to that was of him and his dad! A huge smile grew on his face. She hadn't dumped him! She'd brought him to his dad's work just like they'd talked about! (Well, she did the talking while he did the nodding and she _didn't know_ this was where his dad worked.) He turned and ran off to where he knew Miss Penelope had her office. She would know where his dad was. In his excitement though, he missed the note on the desk.

            "Miss Penelope! Miss Penelope!" He cried as he ran to her office.

            Penelope Garcia turned in her chair at hearing her name and gasped when she saw him. "Jack! You're here!"

            "Yep! A friend said she'd bring me and she did! Do you know where my dad is?" Jack excitedly told her. He couldn't wait to see his dad! Or tell him about his new friend!

            "He's just landing, Jack. They'll be here in a jiffy," Penelope told him. "Wanna wait here or shall we go wait by the elevators?" She asked watching him look at all her new action figures.

            Jack hummed while he thought it over. On one hand he wanted to see his dad right away. But on the other hand, Miss Penelope had some new action figures that she might let him play with if he was good.

            "How about this? You can pick one action figure to play with and we'll go wait by the elevators?" Miss Penelope suggested. His eyes lit up as he smiled at her.

            "Yeah!" He grabbed the nearest Legolas action figure and began to carefully play with it. Penelope smiled down at him for a second, then ushered him out to the elevators. Jack continued to play with the action figure, but each time the elevator doors would open, he would look up expecting it was his dad walking out of the elevator. It happened three more times before Penelope figured she should ask about Jack's new friend.

            "Hey, Jack. Who brought you here?" She asked softly.

            "A friend! She was tall like Mommy and had brown hair like Spencer! She was really nice! But she wouldn't let me see her phone unless it was to take me home, then she let me put in the address on her maps app." Jack told her. The action figure was going in loop-de-loops around Jack as if it were a superhero (or on an imaginary roller coaster). "I don't think she likes cops much. She didn't want to come here but she did 'cause I wanted to."

            "What do you mean? Where did she want to go?" Penelope asked, hoping Jack hadn't just spent an entire week with a psychopath.

            "I dunno. I think she wanted to take me home, but Daddy says never to give out our home address to strangers and I know she's a friend but Daddy would say she's a stranger so I didn't give her our home address. I told her we should come here instead," Jack whispered as though it was a secret. "I remember being carried in here and waving at the guards, but I don't remember coming up here or going to Daddy's office."

            "Oh honey, I think your Dad would be proud you didn't give her your home address. It was a smart call to have her bring you here. Did you see where she went after dropping you off at your Dad's office?"

            Jack shook his head no. He didn't remember even getting to his Daddy's office, much less when his new friend left.

            "Well, we'll just have to look it up on the security footage. We'll find out where she went!" Penelope promised. Jack nodded and went back to playing with the action figure.

            The elevators pinged and slowly opened. Penelope looked up just as Aaron Hotchner walked off the elevator. "Sir!"

            "Daddy!" Jack jumped to his feet and ran to his dad. He wrapped his arms around him tightly. "You're back!"

            "Jack?!" Aaron gasped, quickly hugging his son to his chest. "How-?! When-?!"

            "A friend brought me here! She wanted to take me home but I thought I could see you sooner if I came here! So we came here! I'm so happy to see you daddy!" Jack beamed up at his dad.

            "Someone brought him to the BAU, left him in your office, and then left. I haven't received any ransom notes or anything, sir. I didn't know he was here until he found me in my office. We've only been waiting for you since you landed, sir," Penelope explained.

            Aaron nodded, thoughts running wild with ideas of what could have happened. _Who took his son? Who saved his son? How long did they have his son for? Was his son okay? Well and truly? _His thoughts were threatening to overwhelm him, but his son's arms around him were grounding him. He was so glad his son was alright- safe and in one piece. He hugged Jack even tighter and kissed his son's forehead.

            "Who was your friend, Jack?" Aaron asked, his thoughts settling on this mysterious person.

            "I dunno. But she wanted to take me home," Jack replied quietly. "We stopped and stayed at a couple of hotels. And we drove in her car for a long while."

            "Do you know what her car looked like?"

            "Black."

            "Do you remember what your friend looked like?"

            "She was tall! Like mommy. And she had brown hair like Spencer! It was really curly. And she had brown eyes and she had some of those fuzzy cubes in her car."

            "Do you remember anything else, Jack?"

            "Hmmmm," Jack hummed, thinking. "The hotels we stayed at were kinda... well... the beds kept squeaking. But they had a TV and she let me stay up and watch cartoons!" Jack buried his face into his dad's chest. "Are you going to thank her, Daddy?"

            "Yeah, yeah, I think we will. Once we find her," Aaron told Jack, already thinking of a profile for the mysterious woman. _Tall like Haley? Probably around five-foot-four. Brown, curly hair and brown eyes. Black car with fuzzy dice hanging on the rear view mirror. Squeaky beds- probably cheap hotels with crappy beds. Either that's what she prefers or what she thought she'd blend in with, especially with Jack. Can handle being with a child and can entertain a child for long car rides. Did they drive here all the way from where the UNSUB had Jack? Or did she pick Jack up somewhere along the road?_ "Jack, did she offer you a ride off the side of the road?"

            Jack shook his head. "No, Daddy... She said she'd take me home. She was stuffing something into the wall and then she saw me and then we walked to her car and drove to another hotel. She told me to stay in the car and wait for her. If she didn't come back, she told me that I should find the nearest phone and call for the police. She came back and we drove to another hotel. We slept at that hotel. It had really squeaky beds! She let me jump on them, too!"

            "Where did you go after that?"

            "Uhmmm... We rode in the car for awhile. We stopped at another hotel and slept there. Then... we went to a park- there were a lot of dogs! Then we went to _another_ hotel, but she must've not liked it cause we didn't stay there long before we drove a lot longer and found a different hotel to stay at. We stayed at a lot of hotels. Then we came here! I remember waving at the guards but I don't remember going to your office. I guess I fell asleep. But I woke up and found Miss Penelope and we've been here waiting! Now you're here!" At this point, Jack's stomach grumbled loudly.

            "You hungry, bud? Let's get some dinner. How does take-out sound?" Aaron asked Jack while standing up. He made sure to keep a hold of Jack's hand while they walked back towards his office.

            "Yeah! Sounds good!" Jack smiled, glad his dad wasn't mad at him for not remembering everything.

            Aaron picked up his phone and called the local take-out restaurant. He put in their order, while looking over his desk. A small note caught his attention. He hung up the phone while picking up the note. Turning it over, he saw a short message.

\---------------------------------------

**_You have friends in weird places. If you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask._ **

_(It was signed with a small sketch of an inked-in hand rather than a name.)_

\---------------------------------------

            "Hey bud, did your friend ever mention her name?" Aaron asked his son.

            Jack shook his head.

            "Did she take you to see any of her friends?" Aaron hoped his son hadn't been exposed to any unsavory people.

            Jack, again, shook his head. "She didn't really use her phone. She'd look at it every so often, but she didn't play on it. And no one called her. I think someone might've texted her cause it went off once, but she didn't do anything about it. Does that help, Daddy?"

            "Yes, Jack, it helps. Thank you for being so good. You did so good and you made it home. I'm _so proud_ of you, Jack," Aaron reassured his son, deciding that was enough questions for tonight. He stared at the note some more before setting it down gently on his desk. He'd look into it more in the morning. For now, he would enjoy spending some time with his son.

 

 

 


End file.
